


Before, Beneath and Beyond

by hydrangea



Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 19:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrangea/pseuds/hydrangea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beryl will be Queen. By right, by power. By herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before, Beneath and Beyond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starryeyedsea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedsea/gifts).



> Canon has been slightly tweaked in places as I wanted to give Beryl a bit more flesh on her bones. Hopefully it's not too jarring!

There was little left. The towering pillars of the Crystal Caves had crumbled; the great gate that framed the doorway to the Oracle had shed its golden latticework and left the priceless flakes to drift along the desolate caverns. Once, these caves had been filled with people and had drawn thousands upon thousands of pilgrims with their beauty. Now, jagged obsidian protruded from the floor like sharp teeth and the walls dripped with dank water and lichen.

The innermost temple still remained whole in the farthest depths of the mountain, the pillar galleries and chambers almost untouched by time. The very hall from which they had staged the attack on the Oracle sat at its nave, and there she held court with her shadow guard and slaves pulled together from bones and memories.

“My Queen.”

She looked up from her scrying crystal (intact still after all these millennia, resting safely among the rotten remains of velvet and silk). The shade writhed at her feet, hidden deep within her shadow.

“My Queen,” it repeated. “General Jadeite asks for an audience.”

 _Audience?_ a part of her mind whispered. _What are you thinking, that you’re a queen?_ She silenced the voice, brushed it away as the mere memory it was. She was immortal; a sorceress and a Queen. Not a grave robbing nobody drawn to powers beyond her understanding.

"Let him come."

Jadeite stepped out of the drifting shadows and his expression told her all that she needed to know. She raised a finger and he fell flat before her, crawling in his proper place.

"Four girls, Jadeite," she purred. "Four small, insignificant girls and you can’t defeat them. Should I call for reinforcements to aid you? Maybe I should ask Nephrite to accompany you, he has asked for the opportunity often enough."

He stuttered excuses, apologies. She didn't listen; the power that lived far beneath her very feet, through that doorway framed by a gate and then down through three more gates, stirred. It had no words (and that suited her as of yet) but its presence...

"Enough!" she snapped. "Get out of my sight."

  


* * *

  


Once upon a time (before the pilgrimage, before they ousted the Oracle, before they passed through the four gates and she bowed to her Queen), she had danced in the light of the Moon that looked down at them in benediction, a symbol of protection and peace. The gentle sweep of silver and contentment burned her, dug into her very soul and made her want to scream. _Doesn't anyone remember anymore? Selene took him, stole him from us and then turned away from us once she had the best of us. And still you dance beneath her light as if it really was a blessing!_ The sentiment echoed in the eyes of the other dancers -- she could see it, clear as day -- but no one spoke. Just as she, they had come not to air their opinion but to see _him_. He that would lead them back to their former glory and take back what they had lost when Selene stretched out her hand to their king and he had grasped it.

The Prince -- Endymion, _his_ very namesake -- was beautiful as he laughed among his generals, head thrown back and manners open. She wanted him, wanted to stand by his side as he took what was _theirs_ by blood and history and _right_. She wanted to guide him, steer his thoughts, become the queen by influence and lead them from the shadows. She wanted to run her hands over all of him, as she had run her hands over the crystal figurines that had once been her fancy and dalliance.

"You're Beryl, yes?" he asked when it was her turn to be swept across the floor ("First the Duchesses, then the Sun Priestesses, then you," her mother had repeated over and over again. "Don't forget, Beryl. This is your one chance."). "You will lead the pilgrimage to the Crystal Caverns. You're very young to be a leader."

She smiled brightly at him and did her best to snare him in her net of wits and beauty as they talked. They spun across the floor until they were dizzy and when they parted, she didn't think she imagined the reluctance in his eyes. With her back to him, she allowed herself a pleased smile. A Sun Priestess caught it and smiled herself. "Good luck, Daughter," she said. "May you win your prize and help us open his eyes."

She smiled demurely.

  


* * *

  


There was a hall framed by galleries on the uppermost floor of the temple that was out of limits for all but those she summoned. It was there she rested ( _took respite from the creature growing larger beneath them, ready to swallow them all,_ the memory voice inside her whispered) and partook in the food her creations brought her from the world above. She couldn't live on energy, whether from humans or the earth itself (not yet) and this was the compromise she had made. Here, she could think among the treasures they had unearthed in the ruins; here, she could sleep among silks and velvets gathered for her, as befitted a Queen.

She faced them in her dreams: the mortal woman that Selene forced her into, the foolish young sorceress she had once been. The former railed, rebuked, recriminated. The latter sighed, like the foolish girl she was, wishing to pull Endymion to her side and claim rightful rule of the Earth and all it held. Beryl, right hand of Queen Metallia, and Queen by the right of power, saw them both and dismissed them.

  


* * *

  


The aliens fell from the sky and even in the middle of preparations for the pilgrimage, Beryl heard of them. Heard the whispers of promises and powers and the ability to _change_ things. They didn't upset her much -- she had caught the prince's attention. He came to her door every morning with a bouquet of red roses ("For your hair," he said, "even though they can never fully match the color."). Soon, she would have power taken with her own hands, without the help of a foreign power come to enslave them from the Sun, just as the Moon held them prisoner with kindness.

In the night before her departure ("When can I see you again?" he'd asked. She'd only smiled and tiptoed up to kiss his cheek.) she woke. The full moon bathed the gardens beneath her balcony in light and in the far distance, she heard laughter. Laughter as familiar to her as the blood red roses winding around her windows from large urns. The sound pricked her, and, without stopping to think, she swept a robe around her and lowered herself to the ground with a carefully woven enchantment.

She found them in the rose garden. Shears and a basket lay forgotten at their feet, the red petals black in the moonlight. The girl -- the _princess_ , because who else could she be but the daughter of Selene? -- was too beautiful for words and her large blue eyes held Endymion's like a snake's eyes holds its prey. She held out her hand and Endymion took it.

Beryl took a step back, hid herself in the shadow of the roses clinging to a pillar. The Moon shone down on them and the light burned her.

  


* * *

  


The magic she had once held didn't work in this time and place. She had tried over and over to weave the simplest of spells, but the connection she'd once held with the earth was gone. It had disappeared with Endymion's flight to Selene's daughter; burned out when their last hope chose the Moon over Earth. Queen Metallia had given her power in its stead, fed it to her in exchange for energy drawn from the hearts of people.

 _Immortality,_ she mused. _Power. The throne._ Metallia had promised her all three when she'd sought her out. At a small price, Metallia had said, her voice winding itself around Beryl as blatantly as a beginner's charm spell. A seat of power, the energy from people's hearts, her help to gain the Crystal that were at the heart of Selene's power. It hadn't been hard to accept, nor to pay. Not at all.

"My Queen?"

The arrival of Jadeite pulled her from her thoughts and she turned. Defeat was written all over his features, but for once, she felt kind.

"Come," she said, "and I will show you the power that's almost within our grasp."

Four gates, winding hallways and then, the great seal. She'd show them to him, let him see for himself what they were so close to grasping. Her magic might be gone, but Metallia's energy could still give her what she wanted for the small price of a moment's subservience. She would find a way to topple Metallia soon enough, to grasp the energy without a filter in-between. Then, she would finally be able to finish what she’d started. All of Selene's legacy would be destroyed and Earth would once again be the Kingdom of the Sun that reached out across the stars.

And she would be Queen and truly immortal.


End file.
